This invention relates to improvements in cleaning implements. Specifically, this invention relates to improvements in mops enabling cleaning efficiencies heretofore unrealized.
When mopping a floor, it is often desirable and necessary to clean an area of floor that is substantially blocked by a low clearance overhang from a large object (e.g., sofa, refrigerator) such that it is difficult to clean the area blocked by the low clearance overhang without moving or removing the large object. Thus, the problem of efficiently cleaning these low clearance inaccessible floor areas persists, with recognized solutions ranging from moving the obstructing object to the human operator laying down and assuming a horizontal position with an extended cleaning implement to access the floor area substantially blocked by the large object low clearance overhang.
The problem of increasing the area of a floor engaged by a cleaning implement, such as the fabric head of a dust mop, has of course been recognized and has been dealt with by those principally involved in cleaning large floor areas, such as those of industrial plants or retail establishments. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,784,567 (“Aultman”); U.S. Pat. No. 2,614,281 (“McLaughlin”); U.S. Pat. No. 2,756,453 (“Mattson”); U.S. Pat. No. 2,860,360 (“Leavelle”); U.S. Pat. No. 3,911,521 (“Franchot”); U.S. Pat. No. 4,908,900 (“McLaughlin et. al.”); U.S. Pat. No. 6,155,620 (“Armstrong”); U.S. Pat. No. 6,474,896 (“DeLaine, Jr.”); and U.S. Pat. No. 7,178,190 (“Jones et. al.”). However, these types of cleaning devices are typically large in size and consequently cumbersome and in some cases not suitable for home use. Additionally, all of these inventions require relatively high ground clearance to accommodate static (e.g., “Armstrong”) or dynamic (e.g., “Franchot”) arms that secure the cleaning implement surface to the handle thereby increasing ground clearance requirements and therefore making the device unsuitable for cleaning in those environments.
Some attempts to mitigate the problem of low clearance have been attempted with the development of flexible cleaning implements that do not require static or dynamic arms e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,794,663 (“Vosbikian”) and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0140441 (“Stafford”). However, while not requiring backing arms, these flexible cleaning implements nevertheless fail to extend substantially under large objects with low clearance. While “Vosbikian” does attempt to address the problem of cleaning floor areas under large low clearance objects (e.g., FIG. 4, which is itself a copy of FIG. 8 of “Vosbikian”), the device's reach is again limited so long as the human operator remains in a vertical (i.e., standing) position. Furthermore, the “Vosbikian” connecting bracket (i.e., prior art FIG. 4, view number “32” of “Vosbikian”) substantially increases the minimum ground clearance of the overhang thereby reducing the device's utility in all but the highest overhanging areas. Thus, as before, these inventions still require a human operator to assume a horizontal position for all but perimeter cleaning of large objects with low clearance and still require relatively high ground clearance.
It is therefore desirable to develop mechanisms to clean any area of flooring that is substantially blocked by a low clearance overhang from a large object without lifting or moving the object. Ideally, these mechanisms would allow the human operator to clean the floor area substantially blocked by a large object overhang while remaining in a vertical and therefore standing position.